Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2.5 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

My main issue with Alfred's books are that they are very American centric, names of notes etc. not a problem really but most of the tunes are not familiar to Brits. British piano learning courses / books seem harder to find, anyone else find this and any suggestions ?

I know that citizens of the US may not always have the broadest world view, and that the selections in the Alfred books are not always anyone's favorite, but your argument about Alfred being "American centric" is not convincing. Conversely you could also simply state that you have a preference for a more British centric method book.

_________________________ Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.– Roald Dahl

Kenneth Baker: Complete Piano Player is still available, vols. 1 to 5. I got some of mine secondhand from Abe books for a reasonable price. The pieces are 80s pop-oriented but with some classical & jazz. I do not think the theory & learning aspect is up to Alfred's standard but they are useful as a supplementary. Also, not many of the pieces are available on YouTube. Later editions of the early vols. now have CDs, I believe.

I'm on book one, which doesn't have a lot of what you've mentioned and yes, a Brit centric book would be good for Brits but I guess Alfred's is good for Americans. But I look forward to playing the ones you've mentioned when I get to them.

Did anyone else find Happy Birthday to you difficult, Seems ridiculous but I'm struggling with it !

If you notice. Every piece in Alfred's has some sort of twist to it. That's because they're trying to teach something. Focus on what they're trying to teach. Don't let it throw you thinking you're just playing the song.

I don't know about brit/american-centric versions - i'm from Sweden. Fact is, i don't recognize many of the songs in many of the practice books i learn. But i still have fun playing them - so far about half into Alfred's first book and it's been both fun and educational .

I am a big believer in the DVD version. Gayle Kowalchyk takes you through the book and plays the pieces for you. This way you get to see the fingering as well as hear what it should sound like on a piano. It is my understanding that the CD version contains tracks taken from midi files - it's not the same as hearing and seeing the real thing. If you are going through this book on your own I would definitely recommend the DVD version (that is what I did).

Many thanks to all that replied and even more thanks for those that mentioned SheetMusicPlus and Book Depository UK

In my previous searches I missed both because the "DVD" is buried within the description and couldn't find it.

Shipping times it's not a big concern to me at the moment.

I bought from both (in the past) and my personal experience is that Book Depository has often better total prices (shipping!) and ships faster for an Australian buyer while SheetMusicPlus has an obviously larger collection.

I have just joined this thread, been working through the first Alfred's all in one book, obviously, and I am loving it.Being from South Africa doesn't seem to matter much as I know most of the music from American movies etc.

I have reached "Scarborough Fair". This piece is challenging yet beautiful. Still have a lot of work to make it sound good.

I am also looking forward to the bonus pieces at the end, especially "Over the Rainbow" and "Singing in the Rain" as these bring back memories of watching movies with my grandparents.

My teacher and I are talking about continuing with the Alfred's series with book 2.What are everyone's thoughts about continuing with this series?

I did not do book 1, I guess because I was learning other things with my teacher but I did start book 2 and 3 simultaneously. A bit unorthodox I know but I do not regret it. I thought I would be more disciplined with the books but there were many pieces that just did not hold my interest and that's important if you are going to spend a significant time on them. I would not put you off doing book 2 but I ended up doing less than 10% and probably around 30% of book 3.

We are all different but I found I was drawn mainly to classical works and after reading some favorable reviews here I bought several books from the Keith Snell series "Essential Repertoire from the 17th, 18th & 19th Centuries". These are not method books just selections of works from the Baroque, Classical & Romantic periods. If I had known of "Fundamental Keys" at the time I probably would have considered this also.

The Alfred series offers the structure of a "method" and is ideal for the self teaching student. However since you have a teacher, with their guidance you can afford to be a lot more involved in the selection of works you enjoy and is also fit for purpose in your development. As I said, I am drawn more to classical works and many have said here that learning works by Bach is essential. Sadly the only Bach work in the series (Toccata in D Minor) is only to be found in the advanced section of book 3. This does not imply that the Alfred series are bad books because they don't contain Bach, just that no one method is perfect.

_________________________
If this life is a simulation can I not be in the easy version where Bach was a drummer

Hi and welcome Jeremy. I'm about 1/3 of the way through AIO book 2. Not every piece is engaging musically, but that is part of working through a method book, I believe.

I'm supplementing with a lot of pieces outside the book, like Earlofmar indicated, there is a ton of early intermediate repertoire that is nicely graded that becomes accessible at some point. I really enjoyed the bonus pieces at the end of book 1, they are challenging but very fun to play. From where you are to the end of book 1, it's quite the ride. Enjoy it!

I was told the Alfred's adult course is one of the best methods out there especially for self studying. The only problem with that is lack of classical pieces. What do you think the best pieces book to complement it with?

Well I said ONE of best methods. Not the BEST one As to the Fundamental Keys I received one a couple of days ago. I wouldn't call it a "method" per se as there's very few instructions there. As to all the technical stuff she just attaches a couple of pages with scales and arpeggios without mentioning how and when to incorporate them in practice sessions. It seems Alfred's is much more sophisticated instructions-wise. Speaking about books you've mentioned when would you start using them? From the very beginning? When the first half of the Alfred's was mastered? Towards the end? Cheers!

Well I said ONE of best methods. Not the BEST one As to the Fundamental Keys I received one a couple of days ago. I wouldn't call it a "method" per se as there's very few instructions there. As to all the technical stuff she just attaches a couple of pages with scales and arpeggios without mentioning how and when to incorporate them in practice sessions. It seems Alfred's is much more sophisticated instructions-wise. Speaking about books you've mentioned when would you start using them? From the very beginning? When the first half of the Alfred's was mastered? Towards the end? Cheers!

Surprised to hear Fundamental Keys is disappointing. Are you aware of the video series that goes with the book (to be found on the website). While the additional cost to me seems like a bit of a "double dipping" compared to private lessons this is an economical method.

As far as learning other material I am no teacher but have this to say. Many have written they move through the Alfred Book 1 very quickly to the midway point where it gets progressively more difficult. I would encourage anyone to stick with the book to the end and take in all that it has to offer. However if you just cannot get and enjoyment from the material material then work on something you do like. This may be further ahead in the book or elsewhere.

_________________________
If this life is a simulation can I not be in the easy version where Bach was a drummer

[quote=earlofmar]BTW I think everyone would agree there is no best method.

Well I said ONE of best methods. Not the BEST one As to the Fundamental Keys I received one a couple of days ago. I wouldn't call it a "method" per se as there's very few instructions there. As to all the technical stuff she just attaches a couple of pages with scales and arpeggios without mentioning how and when to incorporate them in practice sessions. It seems Alfred's is much more sophisticated instructions-wise. Speaking about books you've mentioned when would you start using them? From the very beginning? When the first half of the Alfred's was mastered? Towards the end? Cheers!

Surprised to hear Fundamental Keys is disappointing. Are you aware of the video series that goes with the book (to be found on the website). While the additional cost to me seems like a bit of a "double dipping" compared to private lessons this is an economical method.

As far as learning other material I am no teacher but have this to say. Many have written they move through the Alfred Book 1 very quickly to the midway point where it gets progressively more difficult. I would encourage anyone to stick with the book to the end and take in all that it has to offer. However if you just cannot get any enjoyment from the material material then work on something you do like. This may be further ahead in the book or elsewhere.

For us beginners we always want to dabble with something new which may not be in our method books and there is no harm in that.

Edited by earlofmar (06/08/1403:49 PM)

_________________________
If this life is a simulation can I not be in the easy version where Bach was a drummer

I now have Fundamental Keys and so far it is working well with adult students. I think it has just enough instructional material. The instructional paragraphs are extremely short and very informative about the one thing they intend to teach you, then you get a lot of pieces in which to practice the new skill. FK is oriented toward learning to do things by practice, not by reading pages of information. So there are a lot of pieces which will teach you useful skills in a logical order if you learn the pieces to the point of mastery. But obviously none of my students are working without a teacher so I can't speak to that.

Alfred lost my confidence the minute I saw how many times they misspelled Dvorak!

I now have Fundamental Keys and so far it is working well with adult students. I think it has just enough instructional material. The instructional paragraphs are extremely short and very informative about the one thing they intend to teach you, then you get a lot of pieces in which to practice the new skill. FK is oriented toward learning to do things by practice, not by reading pages of information. So there are a lot of pieces which will teach you useful skills in a logical order if you learn the pieces to the point of mastery. But obviously none of my students are working without a teacher so I can't speak to that.

Alfred lost my confidence the minute I saw how many times they misspelled Dvorak!

As I've already mentioned there're some scales and arpeggios in the back of the book but not a single word about how and when to practice them. I know there're teachers who prefer their students to play through the carefully selected pieces which incorporate all the needed technical studies so there's no need to play scales and arpeggios and other technical stuff. But I don't think that's the case with FK. I may be wrong though.

Scales aren't really necessary in learning piano, but they are a good way to warm up, concentrate on your technique, and learn the "feel" of different key signatures which will make it easier to play pieces in keys outside of C major.

I have been putting up lots of scale and arpeggio videos on my YouTube channel over the weekend. Not finished yet, but have all the majors up. There are slow versions for beginners at scales to watch, and faster versions for checking you're playing with the right finger numbers and have all the right sharps and flats.

A very important note to remember about learning scales is that you MUST use the correct fingers. I have the finger numbers in the information section under each video. You can go straight to my YouTube Channel (in my signature)or I have organised lists of technical work with links here:

I have just started learning "The Entertainer" and I am loving this piece. The previous few pieces (Scarborough Fair and Raisins & Almonds) also sound great to me as they use broken chords which give that New Age solo piano sound I enjoy.

My teacher and I have agreed to move on to book 2 in this series. Only one piece left until the bonus pieces. I will probably start on some of the revision pieces at the beginning of book 2 while learning the bonus pieces in book 1.